by Catrin Fflur Huws

To Kill a Machine has been nominated and long-listed for Amnesty Edinburgh Festival: Freedom of Expression Award which honours an Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre production of excellent artistic merit that builds understanding and raises awareness about human rights in an inspirational way.

To Kill a Machine tells the life-story of war-time cryptanalyst Alan Turing. It is a story about the importance of truth and injustice and about the importance of keeping and of revealing secrets.

The play examines his pioneering work considering whether a machine could think asking the questions: what then is the difference between a human and a machine and if a human is prevented from thinking, do they then become a machine?

At the heart of the play is a powerful love story which questions the meaning of humanity, and the importance of freedom and considers how these questions are played out in relation to Turing’s own life, death and posthumous re-evaluation. It is the story of Turing the genius, Turing the victim and Turing the constant, in a tumultuous world.